A Fair Work Australia full bench majority has ruled that a valid reason required by unfair dismissal criteria is not relevant in cases of redundancies that are not “genuine”, with a senior member upholding a far-reaching decision that said failure to consult did not render a redundancy unfair if it was unlikely to affect the outcome. Th...
Full bench says FW Act's dismissal criteria neutral for redundancies
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AMMA to appeal Endeavour urine testing decision
The Australian Mines and Minerals Association (AMMA) will appeal yesterday's Fair Work Australia full bench decision preventing NSW state-owned energy company Endeavour from using urine testing as its preferred drug and alcohol (D&A) testing method (WF18343). AMMA chief executive Steve Knott confirmed to Workforce Daily moves were afoot for a F...
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FWA finalising new litigation policy
Fair Work Australia will hold information sessions for its new litigation and regulatory compliance policies expected to be completed next week. The tribunal will also briefly touch on changed obligations for registered organisations as a result of the new Registered Organisations Act amendments, which were given royal assent on June 29. The sessio...
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MUA seeks advice on possible legal challenge to Port Botany sackings
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) is seeking legal advice on whether Asciano's actions in negotiating an enterprise agreement for its Port Botany dockworkers without flagging its plans to sack half the workforce breached good faith bargaining guidelines. Speaking from Beijing this morning (August 16), MUA secretary Paddy Crumlin told Workforce ...
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Editorial team
Editor: Rajiv Maharaj, (03) 8684 2139, rajiv.maharaj@thomsonreuters.com . Chief Journalist: David Marin-Guzman. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Twitter: @WorkforceTR .
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Qld unions push forward with Supreme Court challenge
Queensland unions have lodged an application in the Supreme Court that will argue a State Government directive that removed job security provisions from public sector agreements was unauthorised and breached the Qld Industrial Relations Act. On press day, Slater and Gordon initiated the proceedings on behalf of Together Union and other state public...
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Sacked Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark ruled out of time
WFD: Former Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark has lost an unfair dismissal claim, with Fair Work Australia ruling his application out of time. Clark, a controversial figure who was once chairman of the now defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, was the administrator of the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust in his home community of Framlin...
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Facebook misconduct allegation not constructive dismissal: FWA
WFD: An employer simply raising an allegation of misconduct is not enough for an employee to assume that resignation is the only option available, Fair Work Australia has held in a Facebook-related unfair dismissal case. Commissioner Tim Lee made the remarks in a case involving animal carer Jacqueline McGregor who, while employed at the Melbourne E...
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Cmr Lewin astonished by United Voice manoeuvres in MSS dispute
WFD: Fair Work Australia Commissioner John Lewin has expressed astonishment that a union chose to continue with a notice of protected industrial action barely moments after he had concluded talks it applied for to bring the parties back to the negotiation table. Cmr Lewin presided over the Fair Work Act s 240 talks on Monday afternoon (August 20) a...
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'Stop attack on workers': ACTU response to FW Act Review
WFD: The Fair Work Act should enable the industrial tribunal to have "an activist role … where employers only pay lip service to enterprise bargaining", ACTU president Ged Kearney said when launching the peak body's response to the Fair Work Act Review. The ACTU has renewed its call for the Federal Government to reject business groups' "conti...
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Govt proposes FWA full bench to select default super funds
WFD: The Federal Government has backed a proposal for a Fair Work Australia full bench to select default superannuation funds for modern awards and has rejected the Productivity Commission (PC)'s proposal for employers to unilaterally "opt-out" of an award's superannuation provisions. The joint Treasury and Department of Workplace Relations submiss...
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Airport security screening strike fear triggers 7-day notice extension
WFD: Fair Work Australia has extended the required protected action notice period for ISS Security workers from three days to seven in anticipation of strikes by security screening officers at Adelaide Airport. On Monday (August 20), Deputy President Karen Bartel issued a protected action ballot order to the Transport Workers Union (TWU) in relatio...
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Full Court rules no two-step MEA process but rejects KFC-Yum appeal
WFD: The Full Federal Court has dismissed Yum Restaurants and Kentucky Fried Chicken's appeals of decisions rejecting their proposed modern enterprise awards (MEA) and ordered them to pay costs. The Full Court - Justices Bruce Lander, Jayne Jagot and Geoffrey Flick - held the primary judge had erred in finding there was a two-step process to determ...
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Heavy fines for anti-union employer
WFD: The Federal Court has fined a Rio Tinto subsidiary a total of $35,000 for taking adverse action against a union member, saying the breaches were "grave" and the employer had shown no contrition. Earlier this year, the Pilbara Iron Company was found to have manipulated a fixed-term contract employee's performance review results; interfered in h...
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KPMG finds security and procedural flaws in HSU investigation
WFD: The review of the Fair Work Australia investigation into the Health Services Union (HSU) has revealed significant flaws in the investigation process, but has not concluded there was any interference. While not commenting on the investigation's findings, the FWA-commissioned report by KPMG released on Tuesday (August 21) says the HSU investigat...
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Nassios defends HSU investigation
WFD: The delegate to the Fair Work Australia GM responsible for the Health Services Union (HSU) investigation has rejected claims the three-year investigation took "unreasonably long", and said extra resources would not have sped it up "in any substantial way" (see above, KPMG finds security and procedural flaws in HSU investigation ) . Speaking to...
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HSU administrator cites misuse of union resources during elections
WFD: Health Services Union East administrator Michael Moore has banned use of the electronic membership database for union elections in the face of continued complaints about its misuse. In a message sent yesterday (August 23), Moore advised members that despite informing them that Federal Court orders prohibited use of union resources for campaign...
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Jackson shoots down police probe
WFD: HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson has refused calls to resign in the face of reports she is the subject of police investigation. The Daily Telegraph yesterday (August 23) reported that the HSU's acting national secretary Chris Brown would ask Jackson to step down as a result of the alleged investigation. Jackson said she "had no intention o...
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Bluescope to seek damages if AWU proceeds with work stoppages
Bluescope Steel is threatening to sue the Australian Workers Union (AWU) for $250,000 in damages if Port Kembla workers proceed with their first ever protected industrial action next week. Workforce understands Bluescope lodged a Federal Court application this week invoking the Fair Work Act's immunity exemptions under s 415 , to sue the union argu...
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Bench rejects ‘overly critical' approach to BOOT
A Fair Work Australia full bench has slammed Commissioner John Ryan's “overly critical” line-by-line approach to the Better-Off-Overall-Test in rejecting an enterprise agreement. In a scathing decision, the bench - Vice President Graeme Watson, Deputy President Peter Sams and Cmr Barbara Deegan - said it appeared Cmr Ryan had “ado...
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